Monk feats

[Talya]

Let's ignore the balance of the monk for a second. (I agree, they suck.) I'm going to be playing one (thankfully heavily modified) in an upcoming game. That's not negotiable, there are many reasons why I'm playing one, and hopefully with the houserules it'll be pretty good.

What I'm looking for are interesting monk feats.
Snap Kick (ToB) and Circle Kick (Sword and Fist) come to mind right away. Other suggestions for a human monk starting at level 4?

[marjan]

Not sure how interesting you consider these, but here you go:

Flying Kick - foot closing fast on your face.
Intuitive Strike - Reduces the MAD if you want to use your Stunning Fist.

[DMfromTheAbyss]

Don't remember what book it's from (PHBII maybe) but I remember a couple of cool feats... Burning fist (+1d6 fire damage to punch, costs a stunning fist usage) and Chi(Ki?) Blast which basically gave you the street fighter Hadoken (3d6+wis I think, cost like 2 stunning fists per usage)

Also less wacky/showy there was dirty fighting and Iron fist (both bonuses to damage)

[Chronos]

Is someone seriously suggesting Dirty Fighting? The feat that requires a full-round action, to add 1d4 damage to a single attack? How, in any way, is that ever worth using?

[Hal]

I might suggest Strength or Destruction Devotion. The former will give your attacks adamantine for overcoming DR, while the latter will let you reduce your target's AC by 1 with every hit for a minute. Not bad for a monk.

It might help to know what race you're planning and what changes are being made to make this monk playable.

[Talya]

I might suggest Strength or Destruction Devotion. The former will give your attacks adamantine for overcoming DR, while the latter will let you reduce your target's AC by 1 with every hit for a minute. Not bad for a monk.

It might help to know what race you're planning and what changes are being made to make this monk playable.

I'm playing human.
As for the changes, the DM is a fan of my thread here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68791

...although he's not taking my changes wholesale, and he hasn't finalized it.

[dyslexicfaser]

I haven't checked out your monk fix yet, but I tend to favor a Stunning Fist build in my monk. Ability Focus (Stunning Fist), and the two that turn it into an area effect and practically a two-rounds-instead-of-one effect (Pharaoh's Fist and that other one whose name I forget).

Monk can also lead to some very decent multiclassing. Sacred Fist comes to mind, or Shadow Sun Ninja. The monk/arcane one is pretty weak, though.

For flavor in particular, I like the two Dragon magazine (337, I think?) feats, Offensive Metered Foot and Defensive Metered Foot. For every blow you dodge, you get another AC. For every time you hit, you add one to your attack rolls. Cumulative up to five for each.

EDIT: I also recommend the alternate class ability, Dungeonscape's (is it dungeonscape? the one with the factotum in it) Wall Walker instead of the feather fall-ish ability. Much cooler and more useful, if you don't mind people naming you Neo.

[AslanCross]

Don't remember what book it's from (PHBII maybe) but I remember a couple of cool feats... Burning fist (+1d6 fire damage to punch, costs a stunning fist usage) and Chi(Ki?) Blast which basically gave you the street fighter Hadoken (3d6+wis I think, cost like 2 stunning fists per usage)

Also less wacky/showy there was dirty fighting and Iron fist (both bonuses to damage)

Fiery Fist and Ki Blast. They're 2nd and 6th level Monk Bonus Feats. I always thought the Hadouken was a cool idea, although it takes a full round to use. (Move Action to generate and Standard Action to throw, and you can't hold the charge.)

A Monk focusing on Grappling could do with Earth's Embrace (extra 1d12 damage on a successful pin).

I also saw an interesting feat from Dragon #336, which is Pressure Point Strike. It provides a wide variety of uses for your Stunning Fist ability, both offensive and supportive. You could use it on both enemies or allies.

[Kurald Galain]

Add one level of Rogue for sneak attack damage (not to mention skill points) and grab the Craven feat.

[Eldariel]

Improved Natural Attack (MM; works since Monk's weapons always count as natural weapons in addition to manufactured), always. 4d8 is a whole different ballpark than 2d10 (well, 18 vs. 11), and it's great on every level. Also, Superior Unarmed Strike further enhances your damage output (just don't overlook your To Hit; you'll have lots of trouble with that, especially with Snap Kick further cutting your attack bonus - you need One Stat Focus starting at 18+ for your attack stat; Str is the baseline, Weapon Finesse gets you Dex and Intuitive Attack goes for Wis. All up to you; Str is best for maneuvers and damage, Dex for defense (and damage with Shadow Blade-feat) and Wis for Defense, Stunning Fist et al.).

I'm a fan of Sun School (Tactical in Complete Warrior), but it usually takes some ToB-maneuvers or magic to get sufficient teleportation to make it worth it. Sun School + Snap Kick is a nice one-two punch, especially followed by a Snap Kicked Full-Attack. Not Shadow Pounce, but solid still and requires no classes. Straight Monk doesn't like it though. Also, I strongly suggest to look at the Unearthed Arcana combat styles and see if any of those strike your fancy. The bonuses are handy, although each school tends to contain at least one poor feat. If you ignore the bonuses, mix and match as you see fit.

Also, Oriental Adventures contains those Fighting Styles that give you a bonus if you finish certain road of feats. Empty Hand requires IUS (automatic), Power Attack (Bonus - don't need 13 Str), Fists of Iron (OA feat - add 1d4 to damage on an unarmed strike 3+Wis times per day), Improved Sunder (could be bonus), Eagle Claw Attack (OA Feat - allows you to Sunder with hands) and Ki Shout (OA feat - 30' radius, 10+½ level+Cha DC Will-save or be shaken once per day vs. lower HD/level opponents; total, utter crap you'll never use, but gets you the Mastery). The end result? A size increase for your damage. If you're allowed to stack them, Improved Unarmed Strike and Empty Hand Mastery give you a huge base damage. Add to that actual size increases through magic and we're talking.

[Curmudgeon]

Eldariel already mentioned Improved Natural Attack. Note that you can buy this feat in the form of a Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic), which also adds CON damage on a critical unarmed hit. With that bonus you might want to consider Improved Critical on your unarmed strikes. With flurry of blows and Snap Kick you'll be making a lot of attacks, so the chances of rolling a natural 19 or 20 are pretty good in your average encounter.

[RebelRogue]

While Improved Natural Attack and Improved Critical are not bad Feats, I'd just like to point out that at level 4, the character will not be able to meet the BAB prereqs. So they're not of much use here (although they may help planning ahead and/or helping people creating higher level chars).

[tyckspoon]

I like a Stunning Fist build as probably the best option for something that wants to look like a Monk (that is, without either gishing it into Sacred Fist/Psionic Fist or just being a Swordsage instead). So Ability Focus (Stunning Fist), Pain Touch, Pharaoh's Fist, Black Panda Mastery if you can use Dragon or online-sourced material. Black Panda Mastery II probably isn't worth it; it lets your Stunning Fist attacks do 1 point of Con damage.. which is nice, but unless you take Rapid Stunning a lot the base RAW only lets you stun once per turn.

[Cuddly]

Is someone seriously suggesting Dirty Fighting? The feat that requires a full-round action, to add 1d4 damage to a single attack? How, in any way, is that ever worth using?

As I recall, it's a 3.0 feat, back when TWF took two feats to do at all well. At low levels, 1d4 damage is pretty significant.

Don't remember what book it's from (PHBII maybe) but I remember a couple of cool feats... Burning fist (+1d6 fire damage to punch, costs a stunning fist usage) and Chi(Ki?) Blast which basically gave you the street fighter Hadoken (3d6+wis I think, cost like 2 stunning fists per usage)

Also less wacky/showy there was dirty fighting and Iron fist (both bonuses to damage)

This is what really, really pisses me off about 3x. A wizard takes a reserve feat and can blast all day, or summon, or whatever. A monk takes a feat, and has to use up one of his only good class features to do something sort of cool but mechanically weak a handful times a day. ARGH!!

Here's the post with the actual changes.

[Kiara LeSabre]

What you really need now is Giacomo's expertise.

[TempusCCK]

Defensive Throw is a good one, and all the prereqs are things that you as a monk should have anyway. Free trip attack when an opponent misses? Score!

[Lathund]

The BoED has a few interesting things. I will be building mine with Vow of Poverty. Takes two feats though, that's a bit of a shame. Also, either Touch of Golden Ice (deals con damage vs. evil characters) or Vow of Nonviolence (+4 to stunning fist DC, at the expense of only dealing nonlethal damage) could be interesting.